Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education

Hannah More's influential two-volume work of 1799 outlines her conservative stance on women's education and conduct.

Hannah More (1745–1833) was highly influential in her lifetime, publishing a wide variety of successful works, including social and moral tracts and religious fiction. This two-volume work (1799) is her definitive study on women's education, outlining her belief that women's conduct determined the moral state of a nation.A unique and influential public figure in her time, Hannah More (1745–1833) was a prolific writer. This two-volume study, published in 1799, is her definitive work on women's education, which went through thirteen editions by 1826 and sold over 19,000 copies. The work outlines More's belief that women's education and conduct determined the moral state of a nation, reflecting her acceptance of eighteenth-century views on the status and education of women. In Volume 2 More argues that, with proper education, women - viewed by her as naturally more religious than men - could regenerate Christianity. She also discusses conversation, fashionable life and public amusements. The modern reader will find More's conservative stance on women's rights a fascinating contrast to more liberal works of the age, including Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Women. For more information on this author, see http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/svPeople?person_id=moreha